Toast to a Very Happy Crochet New Year!

Happy New Year's Eve! This has been a whirlwind of a year here at Interweave Crochet.

Somehow, between Jan 1 and Dec 30, we produced 85 brand-new crochet designs! (Do you have your new issue of Interweave Crochet? It hit the newsstands yesterday!) These projects were designed by auld acquaintances (Robyn Chachula, Lisa Naskrent, Julia Vaconsin, Doris Chan and more) and new (Brianna Mewborn, Lisa Soutendijk, Lisa Pflug and more). We expanded our blogging and started sending you a weekly enewsletter, Crochet Me More. We brought you a new column by Betsy Greer that focuses on crochet charities.

And, throughout the year, you have helped us grow with your comments and support. Thank you!

In 2010, we'll continue to bring you fabulous crochet designs from designers both auld and new. But in 2010, there will be a difference: We're going to give you MORE crochet patterns than ever before!

One way we'll do this is with a special issue: Interweave Crochet Accessories. Chock-full of 40-plus accessories to keep you and your loved ones warm, this issue will arrive in stores in the Fall in time to work up holiday gifts.

Another way we'll give you more is with free eBooks, at our brand new Crochet Me website! (Really, I have trouble avoiding the exclamation point key when I think about all the great things we'll do with this site!) In addition to the free eBooks, we'll have forums for learning more about crochet and about one another; blogs to keep you entertained and informed; a gallery where you can post pictures of your finished (and unfinished) projects; and, of course, our archive of free reader-generated patterns. Whew! The arrangement will be all tidy and easy to navigate, so you can spend less time searching and more time crocheting. We'll also be archiving Crochet Me More enewsletters as they're posted, so you won't have to dive through your email when you're trying to find that tip from three weeks ago. I'm sure you'll love it. When launch time comes, you'll get an email telling you how to log in, then the fun can begin.

In Summer, we'll be starting a grand project that will bring together the work of established designers side by side with work of emerging designers – which could mean you! We'll have an online contest to pick winning reader designs. Anyone can enter to win. And we'll have a strong Craftivism edge on this, with your good work going to benefit charity organizations. I can't say much more about it quite yet, but you can get all the details in the Spring issue. It's going to be one big collaborative mess o' fun, and I can't wait to get started.